A measurement result reported by a terminal may be applied to mobility processes such as cell selection, cell reselection, and a cell handover. This is very important for normal system operation and implementation of various functions. Some measurement results may also be used by a network operator to optimize a system.
In a Long Term Evolution (Long Term Evolution, LTE) system, a radio resource management (Radio Resource Management, RRM) measurement result may be used for cell addition, cell deletion, a cell handover, and the like. The RRM measurement result is mainly a measurement result of reference signal quality, for example, reference signal received power (Reference Signal Received Power, RSRP) or reference signal received quality (Reference Signal Received Quality, RSRQ). These reference signals are sent in each subframe by a base station (evolved NodeB, eNB) by using an omnidirectional beam (beam) or by using a wide beam covering an entire sector.
However, when an operating frequency of a network and an operating frequency of a terminal are higher than 6 GHz, as shown in FIG. 1, because of lower diffraction and a higher outdoor or indoor penetration loss, a signal is less capable to propagate across a corner and penetrate a wall. In addition, due to atmospheric or rain attenuation and a higher body loss, signal coverage is further made more vulnerable.
Therefore, an antenna array is enabled to have more and smaller antenna units. Such an antenna array facilitates use of beamforming (beamforming). Many antenna units may be used to form narrow beams to compensate for challenging propagation attributes in high frequencies. Therefore, in a high-frequency network, one cell may be covered by a plurality of narrow high-gain beams. Rotation modes of different beams may overlap to provide stable coverage. There may be dozens of to hundreds of beams to cover different angles. Referring to FIG. 2(a), narrow beams marked by a dark shadow can serve a terminal. In FIG. 2(b), a terminal may be handed over from being served by a beam of a base station below, to being served by a beam of a base station above.
In the prior art, a deployment scenario of an omnidirectional antenna or a wide sector, that is, a deployment scenario related to an omnidirectional beam and a wide sector, is mainly considered, and a deployment scenario related to a narrow beam in a high-frequency network is not considered. In addition, a reference signal in the high-frequency network may also change. Therefore, an existing RRM measurement method and an obtained measurement result are not applicable to the high-frequency network.